Is there a standard list of terms used in museums?
No! A lot of work has been done on terminology for museum use, but attention has moved away from producing standard term lists and towards the idea of using thesauri. The biggest, and best, thesaurus is the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, produced by the Getty Research Institute. It is the result of international collaboration over many years and can be searched on-line. The mda’s Word Hoard web pages contain a list of other sources. Other long-term projects in the terminology field include the Social History and Industrial Classification, ICOM classification for costume and the Iconclass scheme for describing the iconography of art works. These are widely used by museums all over the world.
